


Acceptable Risk

by Sineala



Category: The Professionals
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-28 00:19:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/985367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/pseuds/Sineala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you're going to die, there's probably a few things you should say first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acceptable Risk

**Author's Note:**

> For Trope Bingo Round 2, the square "twenty four hours to live." (I just changed the time a bit.)

"Shame," said Bodie. "I quite enjoyed life, on the whole."

The fact that the cuffs were improvised didn't make them any less effective, unfortunately. Bodie had been bound, wrists and ankles, and their assailants had taken the additional step of bending him backwards to fasten his wrists to his ankles, at just the right angle so that he couldn't just undo any of it with his hands. Judging by the shaking strain visible in Bodie's arms and shoulders, it must have been incredibly uncomfortable, but he hadn't complained. He wouldn't ever.

Doyle was cuffed to the radiator. He'd got the real cuffs, of course, because they'd done him first. He rattled his wrists in vain.

0:55:50, said the timer up by the explosives. 0:55:49. 0:55:48. 0:55:47.

Doyle glared at the back of Bodie's head. "We're going to die in an hour, and that's all you can say?"

He couldn't see Bodie's face -- they'd left him facing away, after they'd kicked him a little bit -- but he could imagine the expression well enough, and this was confirmed by Bodie's shrug. Nonchalant or fatalistic. Maybe both.

"D'you think crying about it would help, then?"

He had to admit, Bodie had a point there. "Suppose not." 

Doyle tried the cuffs for the hundredth time. They were already too tight, cutting off the circulation in his hands. Even if he could have, say, dislocated a thumb, it wouldn't help; there wouldn't be enough room. They were well and truly trapped here.

"Who'd you put on the forms?"

Doyle blinked. "What forms?"

"Next-of-kin." Bodie was mumbling into the carpeting now.

He stretched his leg as far as he could; he couldn't quite reach Bodie with his toe. "You, of course. Who else do you think I would have put?"

"Mmm. I'm just saying. I put you too. Cowley'll have a mess on his hands, sorting that one out." Bodie's voice was neutral. It could have been any one of his droll observations.

"He'll have a mess sorting out our _corpses_ ," Doyle said, and Bodie fell silent.

There was no sound in the room but Bodie's rasping, pained breath. They'd probably broken a rib or two when they'd kicked him. The timer counted down in deadly silence. 0:54:39.

"It has been a good life, though," continued Bodie, earnestly, as if Doyle hadn't said anything. "Hoped there'd be more of it, but what can you do, eh? But, you know, I've been to a lot of places, met a lot of interesting people. It's been full of excitement. More excitement than most people get, that's for certain. And..."

Doyle prompted him: "And the women, eh?"

"The women?"

"You're not going to say how you look back fondly on all the women you've ever known?"

Bodie shrugged again, which must have taken a great amount of effort, more than the last time; he groaned as he did it. "Mmm, yeah. I suppose so. Not what I meant to say, though."

"Oh? Do enlighten us."

He could see Bodie give a few convulsive, ungainly heaves, as if he wanted to turn over and say whatever it was face-to-face, but he couldn't manage it anymore.

"Fuck it," Bodie said, under his breath, and fell still, not fighting the bonds. "I meant, well... it's been a pleasure and an honour to work with you, Ray. You're my best mate, and if we have to go -- I'm just glad it's at the same time. I don't think I'd... I wouldn't last long if they'd got you first."

Doyle shut his eyes and was glad Bodie couldn't look at him now. Christ. He wasn't going to cry. Not about this. "Thanks," he said, when he had his voice under control. "That means a lot. Same goes for me too."

Same and a lot more, he thought, but he kept his mouth shut.

"I just thought you should know. That I cared."

0:51:02. 0:51:01. Doyle swallowed, dry-mouthed. It didn't help.

"Say," he said, reaching out for something, anything that might make the last hour of their lives less miserable. A joke, maybe. "If this is the part of the sappy farewells where you say you've always secretly fancied me, maybe you should skip it, eh?"

"Why's that?" Bodie's bound hands curled into attempted fists, and though the sound of the reply was as full of levity as ever, Doyle would have bet anything that Bodie's face wasn't.

"It might be awkward," he said, and when it came out of his mouth, the words weren't a joke anymore. Bloody hell, Bodie was going to figure something out about him if he wasn't careful. "They never do that in the films, you know. It's always completely mutual. It never happens that one of them says it and the other one says, sorry, flattered, but no thanks, and then they've ruined the last moments they'll ever have." Why was he even saying this? He needed to shut up now.

"Mm," Bodie agreed, after a long pause. Doyle's heartbeat thundered in his ears. "It's a risk."

"It is."

It had been a stupid thing to say. Oh, God. Just because they were going to die didn't make this conversation a good idea.

There was an even longer pause.

0:49:55.

"You want to know something about me, Ray?" Bodie's voice was a hoarse whisper.

At this rate his heart was going to give out before the bomb went. 

"What?"

"I'm a risk-taker." Another pause. It couldn't mean what he wanted it to mean. It couldn't mean what it sounded like. "Do you want to say it, or should I?"

"I-- I--"

"Jesus Christ, Ray, you were the one who brought it up." Bodie chuckled, the laugh ending in a pained wince. "Ow, fuck. Fine. Just so you know, I--"

And that was precisely when Jax kicked the door down, and the rest of the A Squad followed him in.

* * *

It was a struggle to concentrate on anything else: describing their attackers to Cowley, describing how they'd wired up the bomb, watching McCabe and Murphy disarm it, holding out his hands so someone could bandage his abraded wrists. Even after Anson had called in that they'd found the blokes, he couldn't even think about that. All he could think about was Bodie, Bodie who was sitting in the corner, holding up his eight hundred layers of shirts so he could have his ribs taped, Bodie who was staring at him with a terrifyingly calm, unreadable expression.

They rode back to HQ in silence.

"Owing to the circumstances," Cowley said, "take the rest of the day off. Tomorrow I'll want you both in for an updated psychological assessment, and..."

Doyle didn't even hear the rest of it.

They headed out toward the car park, still in silence, and they had made it as far as one of the empty labyrinthine corridors when Doyle absolutely could not take it anymore.

"Bodie," he said, and next to him Bodie stopped dead. "What were you going to say?"

"When?"

"You know when."

Bodie stared at him with wide eyes, almost paralyzed for an instant, but then his mouth lifted in a taunting, closed-mouth smile. "You first, sunshine."

Taking a breath, Doyle stepped in close. Bodie's back was against the wall now. Before he could think about what he was going to do, he leaned in and kissed Bodie, quickly. Bodie's mouth was dry and slack under his, and his stubble scratched Doyle's cheek.

"I take risks too," Doyle whispered.

All at once Bodie's hands twisted in his hair, pulling him tight, and Bodie was flipping them around until Doyle's back hit the wall, until Bodie slid one knee between his thighs. Bodie kissed him with heavy kisses, wet, slick, open-mouthed, his tongue licking into him, sending shocks of pleasure all through him, oh God, Bodie--

And then Bodie lifted his head. "Knew there was a reason I always secretly fancied you. That and I wanted to fuck you blind."

Doyle started laughing. "It's a good life, isn't it?"

"It is," agreed Bodie. "The very best."


End file.
